What Things Weigh: Measure Your Progress With Real-World Items

"I need to lose a ton of weight!""I don't even know where to start.""All that work and I've only lost three pounds?!"

If any of these sound familiar, you know how frustrating it can be when you have a lot of weight to lose—especially when the scale seems to be moving in slow motion. Instead of getting fixated on the number at your feet, try using visualization as another way to measure your progress. By comparing how much you've lost to actual, tangible items, suddenly those small steps forward will feel much larger.

We love the list that our member NUMD97 posted in her SparkPeople blog about what things weigh. Below, we've included many from her list, and thrown in a few others for good measure. Are any of these surprising to you?

Things That Weigh One Pound

A package of butter (with four sticks)

A football

A salami

A shoe

A package of bacon

A box of brown sugar

Three medium-sized bananas

Things That Weigh Two Pounds

A pineapple

A quart of water

A rack of baby back ribs

Things That Weigh Three Pounds

A steam iron

A box of wine

A can of Crisco shortening

A two-slice toaster

Things That Weigh Five Pounds

Mr. Coffee 12-cup coffee maker

A two-liter bottle of soda

A bag of sugar

Things That Weigh 10 Pounds

A large bag of potatoes

A six-foot aluminum step ladder

Things That Weigh 15 Pounds

A 19-inch flat screen TV

2,000 paintballs

Medium bag of dog food

10 dozen large eggs

A bowling ball

Things That Weigh 20 Pounds

A car tire

A karaoke machine

Things That Weigh 25 Pounds

An average two-year old toddler

Three gallons of milk

Things That Weigh More Than 25 Pounds

30 pounds is equal to the amount of cheese an average American eats in a year

33 pounds is equal to a cinder block

36 pounds is equal to a mid-size microwave

40 pounds equals a five-gallon bottle of water or an average human leg

44 pounds equals an elephant's heart

50 pounds equals a small bale of hay

55 pounds equals a 5,000-BTU air conditioner

66 pounds equals the fats and oils an average American eats in a year

70 pounds equals an Irish Setter

77 pounds equals a gold brick

90 pounds equals a newborn calf

100 pounds equals a two-month old horse

111 pounds equals the red meat an average American eats in one year

118 pounds equals the entire Encyclopedia Britannica

120 pounds equals the amount of trash the average person throws away in a month

130 pounds equals a newborn baby giraffe

138 pounds equals the amount of potatoes an average American eats in a year

140 pounds equals the amount of refined sugar an average American eats in a year

150 pounds equals the complete Oxford English Dictionary

Which of these surprised you the most? If you have any other shocking weight comparisons, share them below in the comments!

I love this! I wouldn't want to try to carry 5 bags of potatoes around, but I did carry that much weight for years. My goal is to lose 10 more bags of potatoes. lol
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MOTIVATEDDAWN8/2/2018

I love this! I wouldn't want to try to carry 5 bags of potatoes around, but I did carry that much weight for years. My goal is to lose 10 more bags of potatoes. lol
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CHRIS38748/2/2018

Without meaning to sound over critical,I think this would be better if one stuck to readily available objects. I don't know of a lot of people with a spare gold bullion or elephant's heart kicking around
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What about cat litter? The box I usually get is 14 pounds and the fact that I can divest myself of the equivalent of TWO boxes and still be overweight is daunting; however, I've done it before and I just need to keep thinking what a relief it is even putting ONE of those boxes down after I've been lugging it around for awhile! -Whew!- What an eye-opener!
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Thank you, Melissa, for the shout out about my blog, "What Things Weigh - Something To Think About". I was wondering why I was suddenly getting comments about an old blog, and now I know why! Your sending traffic my way gave me the opportunity to reread that blog again. It still remains timely. I hope Sparkers get some sense of what they have been carrying around, and to never again say, "I lost only one pound!" Progress is always progress.

Wow! Love this and had to share it!! The car tire surprised me. I've lost an average 2 year old, but like to think that I've lost a car tire and a 19" flat screen! Really, thinking of losing a car tire makes me very happy!
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Sugar has been in 4 lb bags for quite a few years now. , The other thing that struck me is an average calf weight is a little over 63 lbs, many of my Jeseys weigh only about 45-50 lbs. my neighbors Holsteins frequently weigh 80-90 lbs but are more often in the 75 lb range
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